1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire rod-forming machine that shapes wire rods into rings or coil springs and other ring-shaped wire rod parts.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a wire rod-forming machine of the prior art, those that form rings from a wire rod are publicly available in the literature (for example, see patent reference 1). In this wire rod forming machine, by feeding a wire rod while pushing it against a forming guide, a ring is formed from the wire rod, and the ring is cut off from the wire rod by sectioning a prescribed location of the wire rod with a cutter (sectioning means).
In addition, the concrete structure of the cut off means is not disclosed for this wire rod forming machine, however, in general cut off means, the constitution is such that the wire rod is pinched and sheared between the respective edges of a fixed die and a moveable punch is installed on the wire rod forming machine.
Now, in the wire rod forming machine, since the rings are formed in succession according to the feeding speed of the wire rod, in order to increase production speed, it is necessary to rapidly remove from the forming means the ring that is cut off from the wire rod, and to prevent it from becoming an obstacle for forming the next ring. However, in a wire rod-forming machine of the prior art, since the constitution was such that the ring that is cut off from the wire rod is allowed to fall naturally for removal from the forming means, it [the machine] was not appropriate for accelerating production speed.